conservative (Ale, Kegeh iy Wi maine Vemocralie star The. telegenic * Keyes Democratic . resonreés came fast and furious the instant Illinois Republicans hinted © they would nominate — out-of-state Republican pitchman Alan Keyes. to tun against black. . Illinois state legislator and nising Democratic star Barack Obama. Keyes is the but of humor because. he's a ooeperts eger. This ts essentially the tag that he laid on Hillary‘Clinton when she. ran for her New. York Senate seat. He is a hard-line conservative who bombed in two presidential and Senate bids. Mw Lately, I have been _ hearing derisive talk about | impoverished Blacks that: As - facist, because - ttonically, © they TOs iia ees coming Yes, there are difficulties ‘among the poot ‘blacks in Arriérica afd 'there has been a moral. and political disconnect but it is elitist and classist to pretend that any of these issues are calely the issues of the poor and ack. Those who wish to rail against the poor without activism are no different from armchair quarterbacks Some Groups Have Been Working to S By Hazel Trice Edney NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA)- While comedian and philanthropist Bill Cosby was busy criticizing low-income Blacks for not fultilh their obliganons to society and to their race, were thousands of people already engaged in helping the very people he was upbraiding. "We run a wide range of after school programs across the country. And many of them are successful. We touch probably about 600,000 to 700,000 kids a year, which is considerable," says Marc Moral, resident and CEO of the National 'rban League. ‘For example, we have a male responsibility progratl that we tun in Chicago. | said to the director, "How many people do you serve in a year?” He said, "300." 1 said, “How many could you serve" He said, "Awe man, I could serve 5,000 if I had the - him as > Hillary?" : 4 It can be said that Republicans - ll twill also nocrats to pound tate import. He can. shoot. back, "But what about played their own version of ‘the race card by picking Keyes, in what | amounts to a not-too-transparent effort to whittle down the massive support Obama will get from blacks and moderate whites. Still, the fact that Keyes is an African-American could allay the squeamishniess — _ moderate Republicans feel about his hardcore conservatism. Republicans can also stand that _ argumerit on its head and boast nat oe Barty is colorblind and that they picked Keyes because he is a seasoned political campaigner. Given the lack of time to get someone to challenge Obama, they'll say, Keyes was the best choice. who criticize football games on their fat lazy behinds, without ever havin stepped onto the gridiron. Armchair activists, view themselves as socially active because they support, programs ted at. our bet ond ightest, ae ; ignore the second best.and the not'as bright. Any of us can point to’ the problems, What I would like to hear discussed are the reasons why the working class and underclass have worsened," use ‘at that poifit we can begin to identify solutions. ‘For ‘exdmple, ” Blacks ' once enjoyed jobs that were easily obtained ‘with very little education. Those jobs were adequate to support a family, even if on the verge of poverty Changes in the economy ave erased many blue-collar jobs, and today's minimum wage jobs are barely enough to raise an individual. resources." More than 100 Urban League chapters around the country, most surviving on corporate donations, foundaton grants or governmient contracts, reach as many people as possible with after school tutorial, job training, leadership development and responsible decision-making Programs. The Urban League is amon thousand of organizations that seek to address many of the age-old problems cited by Mr. Cosby. Speaking in Washington, D.C. at an observance of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Mr. Cosby complained that "the lower economic people are not holding up their end of this déal,” He athe) et people are not patent are buying things for their ide" $500 sneakers, for what? - again George Bab Pigg oy threat to Robert Dole in 1996 and candidates an and was nabetnedty ishedly ideological. aimed at pushing Republicans further to the right on social issues, But the Illinois Senate’ tace is different. A Republican, Peter Fitzgerald, held the seat for one term. The likelihood: is that as an incumbent, if Fitzgerald had chosen to’ run he would have been, heavily favored to win’ ¢é-election. His retitement gave Obama an opening. In effect, its 4 one-on-one contest for an open seat. . 4 Obama, like Keyes, is still relatively unknown statewide in Illinois. He has the daunting task of introducing himself ‘to voters. . - The Keyes candidacy. also poses a dilemma for Dernocratic presidential contender John Kerry, and potentially a dividend for inflexible . lock for the thinking is that this makes him a Bush. Hllinois ts no Democrats. It's a highly contested, key battleground state. If Obama ‘had face opposition, he would have _ poll in 2000, he was the i oo conservatism. The political aberration with no chance of winning. That ignores some weak or nonexistent changing political realties: A July by Black Entertainment cakewalked to victory. This would Television/CBS found that blacks have enabled the top free up more exclusively devote Democrats to are overwhelmingly hostile to money and Bush. But it also found that less their energies than one out of three blacks are into mobilizing support for Kerry. enthusiastic about Kerry. Other But a hard charge by Keyes at the polls show 1 and number of | blacks, particularly Senate seat could force O that an increasing the Democrats to spend money younger blacks, call themselves and time trying to win that seat. Keyes has been ridiculed for his outspoken and Bridge: Class and Classism Add that to the growing difficulty in obtaining higher education, and young Black men find themselves on the Eg to prison more often than on the females: left are raising children _ alone. | Simple realities of this nation's legacy of racism are still in place, even as people choose to blame on the heirs of racism. Blacks are still the last to be hired and the have fitst tobe fired. The glass ceiling is . ‘Still iw place for those on the rise’ and there are sadly too many of us titclirig the financial: drain, including the very poor as well as some of the so-called middle class. Bill Cosby's tage against the poor Black machine outlines symptoms of an illness. Part _ of the illness is abandonment by the so-called middle class, as well as civic and social organizations and the church. And won't spend $200 for ‘Hooked on Phonics’... They’re on the corner and they can‘t speak English ..." Psychologist = Julia “Hare, co-founder — of the San Francisco-based Black Think Tank, says his comments would have been more helpful had he suggested ways to address the problems. She says children too often get the blame for circumstances over which they have no control. "They're not responsible for the Ebonics," she states. *They*re not responsible for the situaton that causes them to stand on street comers. If you look at the figures, you have a society that will not employ their mothers, will not employ their fathers. In fact, you have a society that sent most of their fathers to prison." . The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), the oldest of the Black Don't Shoot The Messenger... only mistake that I heard and read in the comments was the fact that he singled out paoan blacks and didn't Mendon that sorry parents are among all economic, social and Facial groups Asa on-going poll of how Cosby's comments are judged by ther audience reveals the following: 98% agree and 2% di with him. Thank God is heanng the message. We ay find ourselves shocked at how use and confusion that 2% will the table if a nanonal dialog pig eee of a , we've ; seen of the confusion tactic. Efforts will 2 ‘# aes oi 8s ln 23 3 1 : frit path to success. Many of the organizations, “streamline them’ ‘std colleges independents, while a roundly not-insignificant percentage of blacks say they favor Bush's Entities such as the NAACP and the National Urban League are Ike Black unicorns to the community. Ask many of today's poor and they have no idea where to tind these organizations or what they actually do. Some of our "benevolent" including —_ Black fraternities and sororities are more concerned with promulgating their own legacy than _— providing community service to those in lace greatest need. For example, what of those who "C" or "D" average grades? Whete ‘are the prograttis designed to or trade schools? Where are the elitist classists to- give therm’ choices when the Armed Forces recruiters of the drug dealers or the gangsters come a-knockin? Where were the elitists in the 1990's when urban schools began to fall apart and programs designed to give poor people choices evaporated? I know where they were. Greek letter sororities, has operated its Ivy Reading Academy for grades . K-3 for nearly two years with $1.5 million trom the U.S. Department of Education. Linda White, AKA‘s national president, eagerly explains why her organization chose to focus on the early years of a child’s life. Children who have ~ not developed the basic reading skills in the very early years find it extremely difficult, to become competent readers in the later grades," she says. *And when they are unable to read effectively, then they don't perform well in the other subjects and other higher-level educational tasks and they don't finish school, they can‘t function in society." Delay Davis, a sergeant in the East Orange, N.J. police department and executive of the department's (Together their fans and to negative images with socially positive ones. Now, if these guys and their protges start talking, singing and =pPINE about parenting and voter hon, something very meaningful could take place. Talk about a revolution irector TRY ce some of the - 43 MILLION AMERICANS re-election. . The rare times _ that Republicans have made a real effort to attract blacks, put money into a black Republican candidate's campaign and delivered - promises to pump more resources into health care, _—_ education, minority business and education Programs, they've dented the Democrat's stranglehold on the black vote. That happened most notably in the’ election in 2002 of Lt. Govs. Michael Steele in Maryland and Jennette Bradley in Ohio. In the July Georgia Senate primary, black Republican Herman Absent. . But they will show up to a tubber-chicken dinner all bathed and greased to honor those in the community who are already equipped with skills to make their way to the top of the heap. Integration opened the floodgates for the best and the brightest to flee our communities. Black entrepreneurs close or abandoned business and so-called middleclass families evaporated from the hood of dreams of "movin' on up" were pursued vigorously, Currently, the most impoverished of Blacks huddle ‘in ‘ghettos filled with the unemployed and the underemployed. A strong disconnects between. them and. the rest of Black society is growing each day, along with a strong distrust. Yet, many so called "progressive" Blacks now rail against impoverished Blacks without attempting to understand their conditions. It took the Black church well into the 1990's to begin to address Redirecting Youth) program, is using the police department to help rather than lock up troubled youth. "They come every day and ‘they go straight to the police department. We give them access to the Intemet. They do their homework at the police station. My staff comes from behind the desk and the children take over. We teach them office skills. We show them value and love," Sgt. Davis says. "We call it giving an overdose of support services tor that child. In other words, while. the parents may be drug addicted, it doesn't mean that child can't make it. They may say, ‘I go to the gang because it's protection. I go to the gang because they feed me. 1 go to the gang because it's my family." What we're going to have to do is make sure that child is eating every day, that we remove all ot the factors that our children have told us as reasons for .. that would be the start of it. Yet, when we boil it all down, in a best case scenario, it will take the type of social and cultural development that will need to evolve down through at least one generation before the results are realized. That's the bad news, It may on- “tt did to create it, If ' The Minority Voice Newspaper ew Og eeee Cain made a _~_ respectable second-place showing > by emphasizing conservative Republican social.themes. All this does not mean that Keyes will beat Obama. The Democrat has charisma, massive support and plenty of cash. It does mean ‘that Keyes can make the contest interesting and maybe even a real horse race -- and that's no laughing matter for the Democrats. PNS contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson (ehutchi344@aol.com) is a political analyst and author of "The Crisis. in Black and Black" (Middle Passage Press). community redevelopment. Sadly, for many churches, this means little more than erecting huge structures the homeless would’ be bounced out of if security catches them seeking shelter. In many cities, the poor of color aré lett without intrinsic government assistance and without assistance from other Blacks, sending them into a whitlpool of devastation from which there ts little sanctuary. Crime is now the basic economy. Before Cosby and other elitists decide that today's poor are defective, let them be mindful that they are made of the same material as the impoverished ‘Blacks they disparage. They are made: of the aethi